[RAW-dad]

Spoiler alert – this is a TR from the summer of 2014, so no recent conditions, etc. It is about a somewhat seldom visited part of the ONP so maybe of interest to some of you. We certainly enjoyed it! Day 1 (7/27/14): Started out from the super crowded parking lot for Royal Basin and hiked the short way to the trail branch, where we turned left. Soon found ourselves at Camp Hardy where the uphill fun starts. Fortunately, the way was mostly shady and the trail smooth (or so I remember). At Boulder Shelter we headed up the Charlia Lakes WT and made our way to a small bit of water where we set up camp. The views up Home Creek toward Warrior and Constance were fantastic, as were those over toward Del Monte Ridge, Mystery, Hal Foss, etc.

Near Boulder Shelter

jagged_ridge

Warrior Aglow

Day 2 (7/28/14): We thought about bush whacking (bushfalling?) down toward the trail to Home Lake, but decided the way was probably a bit too steep, so backtracked to Boulder Shelter where we picked up the trail again. Crossed into ONP, where a sign warned us to not bring, among other things, vehicles! Good thing we left the car back at the parking lot! Soon we arrived at lovely Home Lake, which we had to ourselves. After a quick dip and lunch, we headed up to Constance Pass, where the flowers and views near and far were spectacular. Our plan had been to head to Sunnybrook Meadows, but we found a rock shelter on the crest of Del Monte Ridge with an adjacent snowfield – so we stayed the night up high. That evening, as the sky turned orange and then maroon in the west, we were treated to an owl that circled our spot for over half an hour. That’s the blur in the photo… I swear!

Del Monte Ridge

Constance Talus

Home Lake

Dose Sunset

Two small people

An owl

Day 3 (7/29/14): Today was crunch day, so we got an early start and followed the trail down to Sunnybrook Meadows. Then we headed off trail to regain the ridge that is an extension of Del Monte. Pleasant ridge walking, followed by a descent into a bowl brought us eventually to Gunsight Pass lying between Mystery and Little Mystery. I’d been here twice before in the late 90’s and each of those times there had been ample snow in the valley that leads NW toward Deception Creek, which made for easy passage (relatively speaking). Not so this time, as we soon ran out of snow and had to make our way down through unstable, car-size boulders with much avalanche debris. Slow going! We were also running out of water at this point. After much bushwhacking, which I think is unavoidable on this route, we started up toward Deception Basin. This way was also quite rugged, so we did not arrive in the basin until dusk. All told it was about a 12-hour day and our legs were a bit wobbly to put it mildly.

Gunsight Pass

Descending Gun Sight

Up to Deception

Day 4 (7/30/14): We planned to explore Deception Basin, so slept in and had an extra cup of joe. We moved up higher in the basin and found a great spot adjacent to a small tarn with views down Deception Creek over toward Mystery and basically everywhere else in the whole basin. After setting up the tents we day hiked up to the saddle between Hal Foss and Fricaba where we could spot our camp on day 1. Returned to camp and enjoyed a long swim in the tarn, which was almost warm – almost!

Happy in Deception

Mystery Glacier Water

Deception Basin

Nice Camp

Glowing Bistort

Day 5 (7/31/14): During our day hike the previous day we could clearly discern a way trail leading up to the divide between the 2 basins. It seemed pretty straight forward, but we soon found ourselves on steep terrain where a slip would have had some bad consequences. We plowed on and eventually made it to the divide, where I got an earful from my partners. Ok, it was steep! Views of course were amazing, as we could now see most of the 2 basins. The way down into Royal past some scraggly goats, was considerably easier and we soon found ourselves back on the trail, which we followed down valley and back to the car. This was a wild, extremely rugged, but scenic route, on which we saw very few people. In fact, we saw no one from Boulder Shelter on Day 1 to the area around Royal Lake on Day 5. Sadly, besides the owl and a few goats on the descent from the Deception/Royal divide we did not see much wildlife – no deer, bears or marmots.

Morning Deception

TowHead Babies!

Deception Royal Divide

Royal Basin

Sunning Goats

Devil's Club

The Pose

[puzzlr]

Nice trip. I think the traverse like you did is more interesting than the in-and-out that most do, including the party I was in.

[IanB]

Nice trip! There are indeed some gnarly areas between Sunnybrook and Deception Basin. I remember traversing slide alder so dense that we weren't even in contact with the ground.

[jask]

Looks like it was a great and strenuous trip. I especially liked the picture of the two creeks merging together and would like to see it myself one day. I couldn't help laughing at your funny remark about the sign – it reminded me of our astonishment over a sign the park had up at the Olympic hot springs pools warning about nudity, bacteria, disease etc. if you went in. It included the statement "Olympic Natl. Park does not condone nudity". It was a relief to know their stand on this issue.